The raging UK chart war

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The number one slot in Britain’s Christmas top forty is traditionally a soft and fluffy, family-friendly place. In recent years its been dominated by winners of British reality TV show ‘The X-Factor’. This year, a music fan decided he was “a bit bored with that” and organized a Facebook campaign which succeeded in consigning this year’s X-Factor winner to the number two slot. And the tune he urged his supporters to download? A 17-year old track by American rockers Rage Against the Machine. Download MP3

WTP 262: Moon crash, Peruvian fog nets, Nobel Prize in physics, and Trongs!

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A listener-centered episode this week. Tech Podcast listener and inventor Eric Zimmerman shares his low-tech solution to a high-tech problem; namely, how do manage to answer your cell phone when you’re eating buffalo wings and your fingers are covered in sauce? Trongs. Also, NASA crashes into the moon (on purpose), and Peru tries to harvest water with fog nets. And, we have a technological nod to the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

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What’s on your iPod?

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As our resident Global Hit maestro, Marco Werman gets to meet some of world music’s biggest stars. He asks them a lot of questions, including this one: “What’s on your iPod?” The answers are always surprising, and always make for a great playlist. But that got us thinking. Why not ask fans of The World the same question? We did, and you responded. Clark Boyd chooses some of his favorite submissions, including Spain’s O’funk’illo. Download MP3

• View Clark Boyd’s picks
• Post your list as a comment
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Global Political Cartoons: July 11 – July 17, 2009

Cartoonists find humor — sometimes quite dark humor — in President Obama’s offer of hope on his visit to Ghana, Iceland’s interest in joining the European Union, the politics of fighting global warming, the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, and the current obsession with facebook.

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Tech Updates on Iran and China, the Codex Sinaiticus, and Hal and the Big 5

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On this week’s podcast, one of the world’s oldest bibles finds a new home online. Also, technology updates on the post-election violence in Iran, and the violence in western China. And we’ll end with a story of global online musical cooperation. Rock on.

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British spy agency’s Facebook blunder

Eyebrows were raised when Shelley Sawers posted on Facebook photos of where she and her husband live. She also noted the names of some of their friends and relatives. That’s because Lady Sawers is the wife of the head of Britain’s spy agency MI6. Anchor Lisa Mullins gets the story from Sarah Lyall, London correspondent for the New York Times.
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Twitter and Other Social Media Tools in Iran

It’s all Iran this week, folks. Violence and protests have flaired in Iran following last week’s disputed elections. The government moved quickly to shut down the flow of information out of, and into, the country. But Twitter and other social media tools are keeping that flow of information going. In fact, it’s not merely a flow, but a flood. For this week’s Technology Podcast,we’ll take an in-depth look at how vital social media tools have become in Iran in the wake of the elections. Listen

Entire program – June 1, 2009

Today on The World: What the US can learn from Britain’s auto crisis of forty years ago; Also, why Britain’s school minister wants to import Confucian-style teaching into the country’s schools. Plus, how websites like Facebook and Twitter are affecting Iran’s presidential campaign.
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